Do I really need a Facebook page for every restaurant in my group?

If you own a restaurant group, you may be thinking about the best course of action regarding your social media pages. Many restaurant chains currently use one ‘head office’ account to promote all branches of their business. While this may seem like an easier way of managing things – you’ll have all of your audience is in one place receiving the same content – you may actually be limiting the full potential of your social content. Here are 5 reasons you should consider having individual accounts for your branches, as opposed to just one:

Map listings.

You can only have one address assigned to a page on Facebook. If you only have one page and one address, you are missing out on the map listing for every other branch of your business.

Individual location check-ins.

Let people show off that they’re at your business! Restaurants remain in the top 5 check-in categories on Facebook, and by having individual pages for your business, customers can check in to their local branch. Customers are less likely to check into one ‘head office’ page if it’s not where they actually are.

Limiting the impact of negative reviews.

Research has found that 1 in 8 diners leave a review after eating at a restaurant. With so many people wanting get across their opinion, the odd negative review is inevitable, especially for large chains. You may have caught a customerona bad day or you may find someone just wants to complain. Either way, having that negative review on your page isn’t ideal, but Facebook doesn’t allow you to remove genuine them (unless you removeallreviews). By having individual pages for your branches, you will also have individual reviews. Not only will this limit the damage of a bad review, but it will also allow you to identify exactly which branches are obtaining the highest customer satisfaction, and which ones need improvement.

Local offers and content

Another advantage of individual pages is the ability to post local content and offers that are specific to that branch. If something big is happening in the area, posting about it can be a great way of getting your local community to engage. This also opens up opportunities for local offers that you don’t want to apply to every branch.

Customers in Manchester won’t be interested in deals for your London branches, so they’re less likely to engage. Having a page for your Manchester branch means the content will always be relevant.

Build a rapport with your community.

Do you have a staff member that is particularly well known in their local community? Perhaps they’ve worked there for a long time? Take advantage of that and talk about them on social media. Post photos of staff that the local customers will recognise. Advertise jobs and other local businesses that you’re working with.

It’s incredibly important to build a rapport between your branch and its local customers. Lots of people want to support local businesses, so the more you portray yourself as one, the more customers will want to spend money with you.

Customers want to shop local. They want local deals, they want to see faces they will recognise, and they want to check-in at your restaurant. Don’t limit the power of social media by trying to keep everything under one roof!